Matt Shoemaker
Mutable Depths
CD3'' Ferns Recordings rhizome_06 (France, 02-2008)
ltd 500

01. Mutable Depths

Matt Shoemaker had been invited to participate in a field recording workshop in the Amazon in 2007 under the mentorship of Francisco Lopez. With all of tactile squishes and wet slurps that introduce his 20 minute composition for the Ferns series of 3" CDs, I had wrong assumed that these sounds were sourced from those field recordings. No, it turns out that Shoemaker's sounds came from the wintry environments of Seattle, Washington. It is the sound of melting ice, and not some scurrying beetle. The details to Shoemaker's composition, like on all of his work, are immaculately presented, with each encroaching sound being vibrant and rich. The composition begins with a few clicks and crackles from his frozen source, with a gradual swell of densely compacted gray sounds and rumbles. Think Chris Watson's finale to Weather Report, but with the narrative twisted towards the analysis of natural decay, rot, and putrefaction. His electo-acoustic sensibility effortlessly makes itself know amongst the field recordings with pierced drones refracting through the ice.
(Ferns)

Matt Shoemaker, découvert sur le label de bernhard günter, Trente Oiseaux, est un artiste sonore qui s'intéresse aux détails de minuscules vibrations et de phénomènes naturels. Ici, on semble écouter des mouvements de glace et le rythme de l'eau dans un paysage extérieur avant d'être emporté par un torrent de lave urbaine. Comme une fenêtre ouverte sur un monde transformé par l'écoute. Beau, étrange et délicat.
(Metamkine)

Excellent new release by fellow Seattle-ite Matt Shoemaker that explores the "mutable depths" of frozen bodies of water. Very mysterious, and as such, a highly effective work.
(Dale Lloyd - and/OAR)


www.fernsrec.com